Attention 50 Cent: Practice could make perfect for first pitches

Last week at Citi Field, when rapper 50 Cent tossed out a ceremonial Mets first pitch that was so wide it was barely even in Queens, it was the foul ball heard round the world.

“One of the worst first pitches ever,” said The Post’s John DeMarzo. Sports Illustrated, ESPN and pretty much anybody else who saw it agreed. (For his part, Fiddy — ever the wise guy — blamed it on a nagging shoulder injury caused by excessive masturbation. Ha?)

But there’s an important question to be asked: How does a celebrity worth $140 million, who surely knows tons of athletes and has access to the best trainers, not prepare for this? Especially when he has a new album to promote?

Niko Koklonis, for one, is taking no chances. After his company purchased a lot of advertising at Yankee Stadium, the founder of travel Web site airfasttickets.com was asked to throw out a first pitch.

“[The ball clubs] don’t help you [with training],” he explains. “I knew I wanted to be perfect in my pitch.”

So his CFO put him in touch with a friend who knows a thing or two about pitching — David Cone, the Yankee who threw a perfect game in 1999 and was a member of five World Series championship teams.

The pair practiced 15 times. Funnily enough, the Greece-born Koklonis didn’t know who Cone was until the pair started practicing in Central Park and people took photos.

“I was lucky!” says Koklonis of Cone, who didn’t charge for his expertise. “He said, ‘Be careful Niko, don’t throw the ball down, and you must throw a strike.’ ”

Unfortunately, Koklonis’ original May 16 game against the Pittsburgh Pirates was rained out. He’s now slated to throw on July 21.

But a similar strategy paid off in 2001 for Tim Bucher, the California-based CEO of the photo-management company Lyve. His previous company was bought by Microsoft, a large advertiser at the Oakland Coliseum, which afforded him the chance to throw out a pitch when the A’s took on the San Francisco Giants.

“I enlisted my buddy who was a minor-league pitcher and practiced with him for two weeks,” says Bucher. “I threw a strike right over the plate.”

Sometimes, though, even practice doesn’t make perfect. In 2009, an autism charity asked “Howard Stern Show” producer Gary Dell’Abate, aka Baba Booey, to throw out a first pitch at Citi Field. He would promote the occasion on the show, thereby bringing publicity to the charity, as well. It seemed like a win-win. Especially since Dell’Abate had experience.

“I [threw out a first pitch] years ago at Shea Stadium and it was respectable,” he recalls. “It was when the Mets were terrible, and it was a Tuesday night. No one was there.”

For his second time on the mound, Dell’Abate took two sessions at the Bobby Valentine’s Sports Academy in Connecticut.

This time, however, it was a Saturday afternoon game.

“The stadium was packed, and I think it got to my head,” Dell’Abate says, adding that former Mets pitcher John Franco was ribbing him that he better be flawless.

Instead, he tossed out a cringe-inducing wild pitch that flew way to the right of the batter’s box and actually hit the umpire.

Dell’Abate recalls hanging his head in shame as taunting texts flooded his phone. Howard Stern called it “the most embarrassing ceremonial first pitch in baseball history,” and the pitch lives eternally on the internet, in the pantheon of terrible first pitches next to those of Mariah Carey (who wore stilettos) and Carly Rae Jepsen (who let the ball fall at her feet).

“I definitely felt bad for [50 Cent],” says Dell’Abate. He’s still stinging from his own brush with baseball infamy. Every time someone throws a really good or realy bad first pitch, his Twitter account blows up with fans taunting him.

But he refuses to risk a make-good.

“I would never do it again. Someone even offered $50,000 to do it. It’s just not worth it.”